Sony Music’s worldwide revenues leapt up 13% year-on-year in the final quarter of 2014, partly thanks to that old fashioned tactic of selling more records.
That’s according to Sony Corp’s Q3 forecast, released this morning, which showed Sony Music Entertainment‘s global sales stood at 163.6bn yen ($1.35bn; €1.18bn) in the three months to December 31, 2014.
This was a 13.1% increase on the equivalent quarter in 2013, which Sony said was ‘primarily due to the favourable impact of the depreciation of the yen against the US dollar… and an increase in recorded music sales’.
Discounting exchange rate advantages – ie. on a constant currency basis – Sony’s sales were still up 3%.
The increase in revenues helped the major’s operating profits leap up 17% in the quarter to 25.4 billion yen ($210m; €183.1m), which the company again credited to foreign exchange rates and improved record sales.
Sony explained that recorded Music sales increased on a constant currency basis due to the strong performance of several releases and higher digital streaming revenues. Best-selling titles included One Direction’s Four, AC/DC’s Rock or Bust, Pink Floyd’s The Endless River, Foo Fighters’ Sonic Highways and Garth Brooks’ Man Against Machine.
The Music segment of Sony is comprised of Japan and US-based companies covering Recorded Music, Music Publishing (its 50% stake in Sony/ATV) and ‘Visual Media and Platform’ divisions. The latter includes various service offerings for music and visual products and the production and distribution of animation titles.
Sony Corp announces Q3 net profit of €642m
Sony Corporation forecast operating profits of 178 billion yen ($1.45 billion; $1.26bn) for its Q3, double what it recorded in the same quarter a year previously.
It also forecast net profits for its shareholders in the quarter of 89bn yen ($736m; €642m).
The company’s final fiscal results were expected today, but it said it was only able to release a forecast until the end of March, due to the delays caused by the cyberattack on Sony Pictures at the end of 2014.
Sony Corp is now projecting reduced losses for its full fiscal year of $1.4bn (€1.2bn).Music Business Worldwide
